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Is there any reason to NOT have a webpage retrieve it’s main content on the fly?
For example, I have a page that has a header and a footer, and in the middle of this page is an empty div. When you click on one of the buttons in the header, an http GET is done behind the scenes and the .innerHTML() of the empty div is replaced with the result.
I can’t think of any reason why this might be a bad idea, but I can’t seem to find any pages out there that do it? Please advise!
It’s not unheard of, but there are issues.
The obvious one is that some users have javascript turned off for security reasons, and they will not be able to use your site at all.
It can also negatively impact handicapped users that are using assistive technology such as a screen reader.
It can make it harder for the browser to effectively cache your static content, slowing down the browsing experience.
It can make it harder for search engines to index your content.
It can cause the back and forward buttons to stop working unless to take special steps to make them work.
It’s also fairly annoying to debug problems, although certainly not impossible if you use a tool such as Firebug.
I wouldn’t use it for static content (a plain web page) but it’s certainly a reasonable approach for content that is dynamically updated anyway.